There are many reasons why electric cars cannot become mainstream cars, but one of the problems is certain: the battery is too expensive.
The U.S. Department of Energy recently estimated that if electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles want to compete with gas-powered vehicles, the price of batteries should be reduced by 50% -80%. To achieve this number, it may be necessary to invent a new variety of batteries, but it is also very likely to achieve this goal by improving the lithium-ion batteries that drive current electric vehicles.
By 2015, the US will likely produce battery packs for 500,000 electric vehicles. However, this year, due to the high price, sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles are still less than one-tenth of the above figures. This has led to advanced US battery manufacturers in trouble. A123 Systems Corporation closed down. Dow Chemical (Dow) said that the performance of its battery joint venture company Dow Kokam (Dow Kokam) also declined significantly. In addition, the LG Chem plant intended to provide batteries for Chevrolet Volt has been built, but the plant is idle and waiting for supply demand to rise.
Electric cars have lower operating costs than gas cars, but this price advantage is negligible compared to their expensive batteries. The battery pack for Chevrolet Water will cost $ 8,000, and the large battery pack that powers the Nissan Wind will cost $ 12,000.
The price is too high: Electric vehicles, such as the Nissan listening wind that is being repeatedly charged, are expensive. Cheap batteries may eventually change this
A recent McKinsey study shows that by 2025, only through the increase in the scale of battery production, as well as the cost of components caused by competition, and the energy density of lithium-ion batteries doubled (which will reduce the cost of materials), listening to the wind The cost of the battery may fall below $ 4,000.
The startup company Envia Systems has completed a prototype of a lithium-ion battery cell. The storage capacity of this battery is about twice that of a traditional lithium-ion battery, and it can also be recharged hundreds of times. The key point is that this battery is very similar to traditional batteries and can be produced on existing production equipment. The company said that this technology needs to continue to be explored, and that it will take two to three years to actually be used in electric vehicles.
Jeff, a lithium-ion battery researcher at Dalhousie University. Jeff Dahn said that the special flat lithium-ion batteries used in the wind and water are produced using the latest advanced equipment, and the production speed of this production equipment is relatively slow. The more traditional cylindrical lithium-ion batteries cost about half as much as the above batteries because they use faster production equipment and increase production levels on a large scale. Dahn also added that many components cost too much, such as plastic films used to separate electrodes in batteries. "You can't say that the cost of these separate components can't come down."
Not everyone agrees that by reducing the cost of lithium-ion batteries to achieve electric cars can compete with gas cars, Toyota is one of them. They are working on more radical changes to battery design. One possibility is to replace the liquid electrodes in traditional lithium-ion batteries with solid materials. This change can simplify the battery system design and reduce costs. News from Toyota says that solid-state batteries and other technologies can reduce the size of battery packs by 80%. SakTI3 is a start-up company with close relationship with GM, they are also committed to the development of solid-state batteries. CEO Ann Marie Sastry (Ann Marie Sastry) said that just recently, they began to hand over battery prototypes for testing to potential customers.
24M is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is an initial stage startup. They are adopting a different approach: instead of using an integral solid-state battery, they are developing a channel for connecting a lithium-ion battery and a fuel cell, and transporting a muddy liquid through an electric pump to serve as the electrode of the battery. Energy storage materials can be stored in cheap containers and then pumped to small equipment for power generation.
This design is novel, but the solid-state battery and 24M technology are still based on the well-known principles of lithium-ion chemistry. Compared with the more radical non-lithium ion chemical technology method, the commercial risk of doing so is much lower. However, other methods to replace lithium-ion batteries may be worth the risk, because their theoretical energy density value is several times that of today's electric car batteries.
There are many such methods, including lithium-sulfur, lithium-air, zinc-air, and magnesium ions. However, each method seems to have its own unique problems. For example, lithium-air batteries can reach 10 times the energy of conventional lithium-ion batteries (which can reach the energy density of gasoline), but the use of metallic lithium is very dangerous, and they cannot be repeatedly charged multiple times.
Even if many problems of the new technology can be solved in the laboratory, it may take decades for reliable electric vehicle power supply to achieve mass production. The process of solving these challenges will provide a long improvement time for traditional lithium-ion battery technology.
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